GANDHI ON WAR

Press, Volume LXXXIIi, Issue 25302, 30 September 1947, Page 7

GANDHI ON WAR

MISLEADING REPORT ALLEGED

NEW DELHI, September 28. Referring to his remarks at a prayer meeting, reported yesterday, about the possibility of war between India and Pakistan, Mr Gandhi said he was Wedded to non-violence for all time and could never advocate war. He had merely pointed out the possibilities of the present situation. The public relations officer st India House, London, said that the message from New Delhi in which Mr Gandhi was Quoted as saying that if there was no other way of securing justice India would have to go to war with Pakistan was “shockingly misleading.” Thj public relations officer said it was nonsense to suggest that “the great soul who had devoted his life to the promotion of non-violence would threaten Pakistan with war.”

He said that the text of Mr Gandhi’s statement was: “If there is no other way of securing justice from Pakistan, and if Pakistan persistently refuses to see its proved error and continues to minimise it. the Indian Union Government would have to go to war against it. As for myself, my way is different. I worship God, which is truth and non-violence. “There was a time when India listened to me. To-day I am a back number. I have no place in the new order. They want an army, navy, and air force, and what not. I can never be a party to all that”

Attempt to Destroy Air Raid Bunker.— British army engineers again attempted yesterday to bring down Berlin’s great air raid bunker and anti-aircraft tower in the Tiergartcn. Fifty thousand pounds of T.N.T. at the first attempt did not even crack the heavy reinforced concrete. Engineers yesterday concentrated on one corner using 80001 b of T.N.T. The explosion shook the ground over a wide area, but the wall only bulged slightly and a crack appeared in one place.—Berlin. September 28.